Day 21: What should we do in Venice? We'll cross that bridge when we get to it...

We woke to another travel day. Once again, Team Hummel made sure everything was in suitcases, coffee was consumed, and we made it out the door to the train station for a two hour train ride to Venice. 

Venice is really pretty remarkable. It’s literally a floating city that was build on over 100 islands!  We hadn’t been in Venice for more than five minutes when Emily said, “I think this is my favorite place of the whole trip.”  And we’ve been to some pretty cool places so far. All three of the girls (and mom and dad, of course) love the city of Venice. It is just as you imagine it and it’s very much like you see in the movies. 

I love this pic of the girls

The tough part of Venice is schlepping your luggage up and over the bridges and through the (woods, to grandmother’s house we go…) narrow alleys filled with tourists. Ashley and I are suffering a bit, as our luggage is limping along (mine with wheels that are just barely functional and Ashley with a broken handle), but we’ve all done so many steps and have carried our luggage up so many staircases that we’re experts now.  Our apartment was about a 3/4 mile walk from the train station. The streets and alleys are not marked very well, so it took us a little while to find the place, and it took a little while longer to get in the place, as the owner only provided one of the codes to the lockboxes. However, once we got in…..wow!  This is by far the best place we have rented in Europe. Super cold A/C (much needed in this heat wave), plenty of room for everyone, and recently completely remodeled. 

Here is the drill whenever we land in a new place:

1. Set luggage down
2. People scurry and pick rooms/beds
3. Everyone asks for the wifi password

Priorities, priorities. I know, you would think 3. would come first, but luggage is heavy and you only get one chance to pick your sleeping place for the next few days. 

We got settled and then headed out for some dinner. And, as we were exiting the apartment, we realized - boom! Coffee place is literally arms distance (well, my arms at least) from our apartment!  Apartment just got even better! 

Our time in Italy is winding down, so of course it was important to find a pizza place for dinner. On travel days (and even several of our non-travel days) we end up eating only one meal and some small snack. Today was no different. 

When you're on a month-long Europe trip, your outfits and your beers start repeating...

Biggest calzone ever! Unfortunately, it was filled with air and not yumminess :(

After lunch (?dinner?) we asked ourselves, “what is the most touristy thing we can do in Venice? Gondola ride! (For all you New Mexico peeps, no, this is not a ride in a hot air balloon). Ok, so that’s not how it really went down….Sherri saw several gondoliers (y’know, the folks rowing the gondolas) rowing down the canals and said that it was a must-do in Venice. Although we had a gondola ride scheduled as part of our tour the next day, we went ahead and did it since the weather had turned nice and cool that evening. We were very happy we did….it was awesome! We could’ve stayed in that boat all night long, but my wallet said, “uh, no.”  The nice thing about the gondolas is that the fee is fixed and is the same for everyone. So, you don’t have to worry about getting ripped off and you don’t have to negotiate. It was a great ending to a pretty easy travel day! 

Married 25 years now....and she still puts up with me!

We stopped for gelato (duh!), grabbed some essentials from the grocery store, and then made it back to our apartment by 8pm. Fantastic first day in Venice! 

Obligatory gelato pic